silversteps

Haranatai: Chapter 1 Eggs for lunch?

I know in a way making a potential enemy forcibly an ally is a bit underhanded in most circumstances, but it’s better he awakens when I’m here, then later when I’m not.

His expression froze when I bent open the chains, and I think I looked pretty impressive, but I think his amazement is lost in his fear. For he is pressed against two of his greatest fears. Lucky for him I’m friendly and unlike the stories say, carnage is not all I’m good at.

“So when is breakfast?”

I stretch slowly trying to get the kinks out of my back.

“It is lunchtime” the words fall out of his lips like he can’t believe he said them.

“Ah, I must have slept longer than I thought” I sigh, they had caught me unaware last night. It was kind of embarrassing. I had been thinking about the food back home and a nice warm bath when they ambushed me. It’s kind of sad when you lack so much confidence in your men that you use an army to ambush one measly spy on their way home, but I’m not exactly measly when I get serious I suppose.

I step slowly toward my would-be personal warden. He doesn’t move, but shivers like a leaf in the wind. I lean over, and his eyes flare a deep green. “We’ll have to work on that.” I mumble breathing evenly and close my eyes. I sense him fully for the first time. He’s bare, with nothing protecting him from my search. He merely shies away from the touch of my mind as if it shocks him. When I find what I’m looking for I almost don’t recognize it. His key isn’t quite what I’d call normal. I slip out the same way I came.

He’s still staring at me when I’m back. His eyes aglow and shivering. Lucky for him, what I’m about to do will make him warm. I take a breath and taste the words before I say them.

“You would awaken even without me you know. The power would at first trickle out of you like it does out of your eyes, but it would slowly build till it raged out of you.” He shudders harder at the words, his fists clench, and for once his eyes look at me with a glimmer of hope, not fear. The fear was still there though.

I gesture to the outside. I can take you away from them as well. Our kind are treated well where I come from. You would have a place there with us. A place you belong.” I had him there. The hope overtook the fear. He stood up. “What do I need to do?” He gestured toward the outside. “Besides, help you get out of here.”

I smiled softly at him. In a way I hoped wouldn’t set him cowering again. “I need you to become my apprentice and I need you to promise to stand still for a moment so I can awaken you.”

He squinted at me and drew a step back hunching his shoulders a tad. “I thought your kind dan-y-your kind didn’t take apprentices” he made face, ” You just mate with whomever, and you crawl out whole out of eggs that break them to lay.”

I had to laugh at that. Just the flash of the picture of Civa or Kal peeping like goslings as they tear out of eggs was quite funny. He had taken a step back. “Sorry” I wipe my eyes, shake my head, and I grin. “You silly goose!” I had to pause, because I was in danger of another bout of laughter.

“You don’t remember hatching out of an egg do you? ”

He shook his head slowly from left to right. “No I suppose not, and the stories say I’d be dead already too…”

“Good! You would be the first of our kind to be hatched if you were. So do you agree? You must stay with me if you do, and I’d teach you.”

He took a shaky step forward and then another steady one and nodded. “Yes, I agree to help you out of here and to be your apprentice.”

“Don’t forget to stand still. I need to awaken you, and you must agree to that.”

He blinked both eyes slowly. “Yes, I agree to allow you to awaken me. Do you need my blood?” He seemed braver now, and the shadows of fear in his eyes had all but disappeared.

I shook my head. “No just standing still, but to be honest, awakening is different for everyone. It’s written on the face of our minds for others of our kind to read and free us.” I remembered my own well. “Mine needed me to be to read from a certain book. Luckily yours can be done here and now. You ready?”

He nodded and I stepped close. He didn’t move as promised. I quickly tilted my head the right, his left, and gently kissed the side of his neck. He shivered, went limp, and I had to catch him in my arms. It was going to be awhile before he woke up. I should have thought to ask him to get lunch first.